The unpacking of the phenomena mentioned in the previous post will involve exploring elements that are a common part of our day-to-day physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual experience.
I propose that they have been woven into our consciousness since time immemorial. I also propose that they are all the more powerful because we take them for granted.
We don’t really, consciously, notice them as we live day by day but their influence on us is profound nonetheless. (I have already described this as high impact-low noticeability and I will be referring to it again).
I mentioned Bedford Row Family Project already and I believe that many of the features found their way into the Project because:
Firstly – the families affected by imprisonment who trusted the Project in the early days had the courage to get involved and be forthright about their and their families’ needs. (Courage).
Secondly – the early leaders were wise and farsighted enough to allow people to both be and be themselves. (Wisdom).
Thirdly – the then Governor and Officers of Limerick Prison embraced this very unique model in an era when they got little encouragement to do so from the powers that be, and when, on the surface at least, there was little in it for them! (Compassion).
In identifying, naming, and describing interconnected elements that are a common part of our above-mentioned day-to-day physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual experience, my intention is to ensure that:
1. The characteristics (i.e. the warmth, genuineness, consistency, etc.) manifest (and prevail), and
2. The process of steady growth towards autonomy and independence can be better understood in the context of the elements identified, named, and described.
It is intended that 1 and 2 above will be better understood as the blog is read.
Now there is a danger inherent in all this – and I will mention it now.
In what I am describing, maybe there’s no theory – it just is! The fact that practice might be transferable from and/or determined by a theory or theories (and/or vice-versa) is a risk that I am taking. (Much more on this later, in the Chapter on Research and Evaluation)!
My fervent hope is that through the naming and understanding of the theoretical framework on which the warmth, congruence, consistency, etc. is built, it will be understood better so that it can be rigorously examined, challenged and if effective, replicated.
In doing this – reframing – it is helpful to think of the work being more process than solution. There may be solutions hidden within, and/or we may stumble on them, but they are by-products of process. In fact, constant searching for solutions is, so to speak, barking up the wrong tree!
Think of it like a child growing. It is a long process with loads of successes (solutions) along the way. If there was a solution to a child growing – it would probably be adult maturity.
I like to think of it another way too. That is, the framework just mentioned, on which a new paradigm is built takes things that traditionally were seen as problems and turns them into opportunities – just like parents often do rearing children!
To sum up, and all the above being considered, I strongly believe that:
1. The time is now ripe for a fresh look at design, i.e. methods that we use to support those who are always ignored until they cause us trouble, using concepts and ideas not always associated with this challenge, originating in our natural world.
2. The emotional dimension to human problems almost always plays second fiddle to the cognitive analyses of which there are so many that they overwhelm the emotional.
Having been lucky enough to be in a time and space in the evolution of helping modalities, (where the head of neuroscience is meeting the heart of traditional wisdom), I feel that those of us who are working in this field have a responsibility to bring these gifts to the world.
Anyone who aspires to propose an alternative paradigm to the mainstream must describe it as rigorously and as thoroughly as those who wish the current one to prevail [1].
And as for myself – I believe that I am a suitable person to write this website because I often take the road less travelled [2] myself!
[1]. This is a kind of paraphrase of Martin Luther King’s encouragement to us that those of us who want peace must pursue it as vigorously as those who want war.
[2]. The Road Less Travelled is the title of a best-selling book by M. Scott Peck.